Verizon was a bit cagey about pricing or a release date for the new member of the RAZR line at CES, but Motorola apparently decided that we’d had enough waiting and slapped a January 26th release date on their DROID RAZR MAXX page.

Interestingly the “Specs” page is the only one that gives the January 26th release date today, the rest all merely indicate that the DROID RAZR MAXX will be “available soon.”

Regardless of which is to be believed it is safe to say that we are weeks and not months from this thing releasing so if you were eyeing the DROID RAZR and value battery life highly then I’d counsel patience. The DROID RAZR MAXX should be slotting into Verizon’s lineup at $299 with the original DROID RAZR dropping to $199.

Just in case you missed the DROID RAZR MAXX amidst the madness of CES it is basically an extended battery version of the DROID RAZR. They stuffed an enormous 3,300 mAh battery into it versus the 1,780 mAh found in the original RAZR. This results in a slightly more standard 8.99mm thickness versus the virtually anemic 7.1mm of the DROID RAZR, but that trade off gets you over 21 hours of talk time, 15 hours of movie watching or 7 hours of web surfing. The rest of the specs mirror the original so you can go back and read our review of the DROID RAZR if you need to refresh your memory on our opinions of that device.

I got a chance to play with the DROID RAZR MAXX briefly at CES and preferred the feel of it in hand to that of the original DROID RAZR. Getting that kind of battery life in a form factor that is still thinner than the Verizon Galaxy Nexus should be a huge selling point for users that don’t want to have to worry about tweaking settings to eke out a day of use from their phone.

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Rogers in Canada has the XT910 RAZR, which is not an LTE phone. It runs on Rogers’ 3G network.

damambt

I should of specified, i just assumed that everybody else was aware of what you just mentioned. sorry. I just like the razr design and i would like to see my sh*tty carrier carry it.

Oskar Wismierski

Razrs battery is killing the competition

LukeT32

Wow that battery is crazy huge…. if the nexus wasn’t out right now I would snatch it up.

jawabba

Its hard to buy a phone solely based on a battery, but the phone itself is nice enough to consider. Nothing like the ability to tether for 4 hours vs the current 2 on my TBolt. Bleh

alexanderharri3

Finally, a manufacturer adds some heft (2mm) to a phone to have beastly battery life. FINALLY. The RAZR was so thin in the first place to be “thinnest” to make it a still-thin but great battery device. If Moto continues this trend (in the 1st generation devices, rather than MAXXing out everything…) I will be at least considering them come upgrade from Thunderbolt.

http://droidsamurai.blogspot.com DroidSamurai

So, basically they are selling the battery for an extra $100? Just when I think Apple is ridiculous in charging $100 for 16Gb of storage on the iPhone, Motorola now actually manages to beat them by selling you something they should have put into the original RAZR in the first place.

shane

you are exactly right. this is the battery Motorola should have utilized and is now using to raise the price of the droid razr maxx!

Miltk

yup, that’s what SHOULD have happened, but this is all about business and the business of making money. i look at it as a breakthrough. with the bar raised, we can expect this from ALL phones if they want to compete from now on.

http://droidsamurai.blogspot.com DroidSamurai

Look, if Motorola released both versions at the same time and let the consumer picks which battery option to buy, I would have less complaint.

Chris

I would normally agree with you, but consider this:
a “normal” extended(3300) battery on other phones runs ~$40-50 and they are nowhere near as thin as the battery in this thing. So, say the battery would cost $50-60 to buy separate if it was a user-replaceable battery. That’s nowhere near the markup of 16gb flash storage for +$100.

I don’t agree with the additional $100 price tag for this either, but I also don’t feel like I’m getting ripped off for as much as if it were to add something that was only really worth $10

zerosix

But that is 3300 mAh battery. Sometimes it’s really worth $100.

JT

The $199 RAZR is the 16GB version, the other 32GB version is $269 with Verizon right now. The MAXX is basically the 32GB version with an extended battery, so really you are paying $30 more for the battery.

Kempsterx5

Looking like this will replace my HTC Thunderbolt even though I like the Galaxy Nexus with ice cream I just can’t get pass the cheap feeling build qualities and 5 meg camera, but if the Galaxy S3 was out I would be leaning toward that

Chris

I’m in the same boat about the galaxy s3, I’d really like to get that and hope it doesn’t take too long to release.

Don’t knock that 5mp camera much on the nexus though, it takes fantastic photos and really quickly to boot. I mean, the photo is taken and displayed for preview almost the moment you push the button.

Remember: megapixels do NOT equal sharpness of picture. 5mp is more than enough for a high res background on your computer monitor if the sensor quality (and photographer) is good.

axschech

The original Razr was all about thinness, that’s why it didn’t originally have that battery. Now you have a choice between thinnest phone available and phone with the biggest battery available

WlfHart

I hope other manufacturers hop on this idea of having meaty batteries. Sure tech can get super thin these days, but some of the old devices are thin enough. Why not use the extra space for more power?!

sunrise

I really like the Droid Razr. The only issue I have with it is the way it feels in your hand. Doesn’t feel natural, possibly because of the squarish shape and width. Then again I don’t own it and have only held it a few times, maybe you get use to it.

DroidPower

i agree, and i’ve also only played it a few times. maybe the added battery heft will make it feel a bit better in the hand.

they should allow people to switch and not having to buy a new phone what a retarded move by Motorola

Miltk

i’m there…battery life = longer gps = more surfing and more video, no worries, and that’s all i look for.

Richard Yarrell

Much love for that battery definately wish i had that on my galaxy nexus no doubt. Regardless Gnex PIMP SLAPS Droid Razr and Razr Maxx all day long….

squiddy20

Again with the “pimp slap” insult? Seriously, come up with something different. You’ve been saying the same exact thing for over a year. “x pimp slaps y”, “y pimp slaps x”, yada yada yada. You really are a broken record.

Richard Yarrell

Same yada yada yada person leaving USELESS comments…Go buy a life you seriously must have nothing going on WORTH WHILE in your PITIFUL EXISTANCE….Your extremely laughable….Your life is TICKING AWAY…..

squiddy20

1. I’ve said it many times, I’ll say it again: you cannot “buy” a life. You can “get” a better one by working hard, going to school, taking trade/vocational classes, etc. Something you really need to look into.
2. The fact that the only thing you can do is come up with more insults that you’ve expressed repeatedly before is only a testament to my earlier comment. Good job at digging yourself deeper in that pit of stupidity. As I said before, you comment, I point out your errors, and you make even faultier comments in response. I guess you’ll never learn…

dtrainmusikvein

existence*, idiot

Kyle

No mention of the fact that not only did the battery almost double in size, but so did the internal memory?…….weak reporting…

iDroid

Internal memory is the same – 16GB. Seems the only weakness is your ability to read specs.

http://willoughbyjunction.com Jayson Olson

Too bad they didn’t announce this forthcoming option when the origianl Droid Razr was released, as my wife would have waited to get this one.

She likes her Razr, but the battery life does indeed blow. She’s a person who utilizes FB a lot, so anyone thinking with similar habits, pass on the Razr or you’ll be complaining about drained batteries 1/2 day through.

Here’s hoping that Verizon will let her trade in her 2 month Razr for the Maxx, but I doubt it.

Coltsfan74

OG Razr owners should get some type of upgrade opportunity. I understand there is always something new around the corner, but 3 months??

I really like the Razr, but had I known there was an opportunity for something with a longer battery, I would have waited.

dwilson6

Verizon really needs to stop releasing new phones. They have way too many already. Or they should at least discontinue some “older” phones.

Richard Yarrell

STOP CRYING…

squiddy20

He’s not “crying” dumbass. Show me where, in any part of his three sentence comment, he is coming off as if he’s complaining, sad, anguished, “crying”, or any other emotion remotely related. You won’t be able to because he was stating his honest opinion, which is apparently something you have always had a problem with. His opinions are his opinions and nothing you do or say can change that, despite what you may like to believe. Grow up.

Also, if you feel so strongly about it, why don’t you make him “stop crying”, if you can? What an idiot.